knotzen

hee hee hee

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw once: "I may be fat, but you're ugly, and I can lose weight."

Um, whatEVer.

Yeah, I think Chatter Creek worked out well--a perfect venue, actually. I'm just bummed I missed the keg on Friday night.

The New American Sportsman

Sport Climbers With Guns--When Clipping Bolts Just Isn't Enough

Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Texas A&M University has invented a bra that keeps women's breasts from jiggling and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in. After a news conference announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and kicked the shit out of him.

Finished watching it last night--"Japanese Story." I heartily don't recommend it. Turned out to be a sappy, uncredible romance. Unless you're really into deadman anchors!

Most excellent news! I'll bop you one if you *don't* post a picture. Have you chosen an English name for her? I'm afraid your midnight yelling days--er, nights--will soon be over.

Fred Meyer sells them, at the customer service desk, as do most sporting goods stores. You can search for other places here.

Oh fuck, now my cover is blown.

OH, and Bug was there, too. With his nice friend, not-a-Bug. The yelling was sort of weird--it sounded sort of female for the first couple of hours, and then it sounded male. I can only wonder what sort of degenerate things were happening around the campfire.

Oh, whew! Even if they didn't have any extra herbal flavorings.

Hey, are you saying my brownies were hard? And I sincerely hope that won't be misinterpreted.

Damn! It sounds like I went to bed too early.

WAR

Yeah. I didn't mean to be too critical. Minx and Olyclimber did a lot lot lot beforehand, behind the scenes, and AlpineK spent hours setting up the camp site in the rain Sat. afternoon. Thanks for making it happen. ~kNOTzen

I had to get back to town early Sunday, but Saturday it was mostly sunnyish and dry, with a few hours of downpour in the afternoon (snow up high, even in the Icicle). No rain all evening, and a brilliant blanket of stars in the middle of the night.

Over my dead body! And you are much too nice to take me out, so it will NEVER HAPPEN!

Snow!

A coupla comments (I'm at work, so I get to use numbered bullet points, like in a presentation): 1. It was good to meet some people--Doxey, Sobo, AlpineK, Alpinfox, Blake, Lunger (?), Olyclimber, MisterE, Suzi and Wrecks. 2. Would have been more fun if MORE PEOPLE who SAID they would come would have come. (My dog Chase really wanted to meet Scooter Bug! He was so bummed.) 3. Seemed like there were quite a few people who were not on cc.com?? Not a bad thing, they were cool peeps, but I was looking forward to meeting people I'd been bs'ing with online, ya know? Putting faces to names, and shit. 4. The beer was plentiful and tasty. Thanks!! 5. Except for the fact that the weather might be poorer up there, Chatter Creek is a way cool campground. Nice to have the covered kitchen with the rain and all. 6. Next time, get verification that the group camp site reservation went through--although the reservation system should handle this electronically. (Bit of a mix-up on that, hence, we/I missed out on socializing Friday night, which was why I went over early. Not to rub anyone's noses in it, but it was a bummer to arrive, in the rain and the dark, at 9:00 on a Friday evening, and not find anyone to drink with.)

Delicious! I first had edamame beans in 1999 on a visit to Manhattan. It seemed so exotic--shortly after, they became more common out here.

One of my mainstay quickie favorites is to boil pasta (spaghetti, fettucine, shaped pastas) in water with a little olive oil. While that's cooking, open up a jar of tasty marinara sauce (not Prego--as with wine, something in the mid price range, at least). Dump half the jar into a pan on the stove, plop in 3 TJ's frozen turkey balls--um, turkey meatballs--put a lid on it (it will splatter), and heat on low-medium while the pasta boils. Drain the pasta, test the meatballs to make sure they are cooked through, then pour over the pasta. Maybe sprinkle on some garlic powder, or crushed fresh garlic--often too much trouble--and a generous sprinkling of shredded (or grated) parmesan cheese. Sprinkle on any other herbs you might want--parsley, oregano. Open up a bag of TJ's organic herbs and/or arugula, put two handfuls in a bowl, slice some green onions and cucumber on top, sprinkle on equal parts olive oil and seasoned rice vinegar, add some fresh-ground pepper. Pour a glass of wine, and you're set. OTOH, sometimes I have frozen waffles with peanut butter and syrup, and a tall glass of skim milk. YUM!

It's interesting to hear about the wars from the Canadian perspective. In graduate school I took a seminar that was solely about the effect of WWI on Canada--the country lost a disproportionately large number of men, and appeared to have a profound social effect. Re: WWI, I recently saw a movie called "A Very Long Engagement" (I think it came out last year?), and although it's a bit of a romance and a mystery, it's very much about the war. Some scenes take place in the trenches, and it's pretty horrific. Desperate men would mutilate themselves to be removed from the war, and then sentenced to death if it was determined/discovered that they did it themselves--it was considered being a traitor. Worth watching--an enjoyable film, but also historically enlightening.

An "aha!" moment--I'm watching this movie where a Land Rover gets stuck in the sand in the Australian outback. After shoveling doesn't get the vehicle unstuck, the key character decides they have to build a "dead man." They dig a hole, put a spare tire in the hole, attached to the winch chain (going to the vehicle), they bury the tire, and use this improvised anchor to winch the vehicle out of the sand (only, it doesn't work, because it's the movies, and the script writers have something else in mind for the hapless victims). I've only encountered "dead man" anchors in snow climbing--it never occurred to me that it was not unique to that medium. Turns out it's a technique used in other applications as well. Cool!